Tchaikovsky - The Seasons: February

It's Carnival time. And, by the way, in my neighborhood a very famous carnival takes place these days: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyk_aiV0zfE

Enjoy! (Terez, you'll find it a bit tame, I'm afraid )

Tchaikovsky - The Seasons, Op.37b - 2: February (Carnival) ( 3:03 )

 

What the hell is a lorry? :lol:

 

What a bunch of silly sods, the Italians are. Both the bravest and the maddest, as is rightfully said in the clip. Not you of course Alf, you are brave without being mad. All this is a bit of a waste though, considering we have to pay through the nose here for a decent orange - if one is available at all that doesn't taste like it's years old. The girl peeking out the window at 3:48 is real pretty, in the way that oinly Italian girls can be

No quibbles with this performance, it's a bit more refined than my version. The tinkly digital sound does it no favours though... it could IMO have done with a bass boost. This one's up the site, as we say here :wink:

 

Don't complain. That's EU's agricultural policy. Those oranges would likely be in any way destroyed.

Show me a videoclip shot in Amsterdam and I'd probably say the same thing about Dutch girls. Gene pools strive for diversification. :lol:

I listened to it before posting mine (as I always do). In your November I noticed that you had edited out by error a big portion of the reprise, I'm telling you in case you were to re-record the piece.

Thanks Chris, but I now accept as inevitable the ugly digital sound of my MP8, especially in the loud passages.

 

Yes probably. And we'd get last year's crop from Israel or Egypt, for 10 times the price they are worth :x

Id is widely acknowledged that Italian girsl are the best though.

Oooh that is worrying. I guess I'd have to re-record them all, to go one better on you again

I would not call it ugly, just that there's some lack of sonority.

 

Luckily we don't have to import our oranges from overseas; except clementines from Spain (but those are seasonal).

I wonder if there are any tropical countries that have festival fights with coconuts ? :wink: :twisted: :lol:

 

Mazurka Queen, I too enjoy clementines especially when they are juicly ripe. But sometimes they are awfully dry and dense which makes for a rather unpleasant eating experience. :x

 

A very enjoyable performance, Alf. Cleanly and precisely played and I'd say you definitely got the spirit of it.

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That video reminded me of something similar we used to do after school, though not at this scale and with different ammunition, mandarins.
I have stopped eating oranges since then. There are so many here, I prefer to squeeze a bunch and drink the juice instead.

 

Thank you Pantelis. I am not a great fruit eater but I understand that someone might be disturbed by such a waste of food.

 

I know of a festival in a remote English county where they throw lorries at each other.

 

You're kind Andreas, but I really think that my Kawai (and Kawai digital pianos in general) don't have good samples. Yamaha is much better under this respect, but the action sucks and the keyboard is made of plastic. You have to shell out a lot more to get wooden keys and a decent action on a Yamaha digital piano.

 

All of them?

Do you really believe that bravery/madness is a black eye or a broken nose via an orange?

 

Thank you François.

 

Tchaikovsky

You played this exquisitely as usual. I don't know much about keyboards or electric pianos or whatever they are called. You seem to never make an error and the interpretation is always wonderful. I'm making no accusations---only asking a question out of ignorance. Can you or do you "clean up" or correct errors after you have played a piece on such an instrument? I have been wondering about that for quite a while since most works recorded on these modern instruments seem to almost always be perfect.

I watched the video about the orange fight or festival. I hope those are not delicious Florida oranges. It reminds me of that other activity in Spain or Italy involving tomatos instead of oranges. I don't find it as offensive as the "Bull Run" or bull fights. I went to a bull fight in Seville and got up and left within two minutes after the poor tortured bull entered the ring. I have very strong feelings about animal cruelty.

 

Re: Tchaikovsky

If you record via MIDI to a computer is possible to alter every single parameter of every single note. I mean, you can change the pitch of a note, its dynamic, its duration, since every "event" is not recorded as digital audio but as an instruction that is understood by the sequencer, that is, the software you use to manipulate a MIDI file (and much else). After the editing you render the MIDI file to digital audio using a physical model (like Pianoteq) or a sampled piano library. There are examples of this procedure on this site. AFAIK, John Grant has recorded the WTC I by using this method. And the artistic outcome is quite convincing in his case (IMO).

I don't do that. I record a piece digitally, that is, as digital audio. I do it directly to the PC (therefore not using recording device like Zoom or Edirol), since the sound is already "digital". So, I don't correct errors AFTER I've played a piece. If there are errors I discard the take. I may discard even an error-free take if I don't like it. Then I choose the takes closer to my conception of the piece and put them together. How big the take? On average 1 page, sometimes 2 side-by-side pages, sometimes smaller sections, it depends on the piece. How long do I record? For 'February' I have a 20 minute recording (the piece is 3 minutes long). How long did I spend studying it? 20 to 25 hours. Hey, it's a lot! Yes, that's why I record about 1 hour of music a year... I hope to do better in future, though. :lol:

I too have a strong feeling about cruelty against animals!

 

Nope. I did acknowledge you are the sole exception

Yes ! At least the typically Italian variant of this combination.